Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ; genetics ; metabolism ; Animals ; Energy Metabolism ; genetics ; Growth Hormone ; metabolism ; Humans ; Insulin ; metabolism ; Longevity ; genetics ; Metabolism ; genetics ; Signal Transduction ; genetics

Animals ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; metabolism ; physiology ; Mice ; Transcription Factors ; biosynthesis

Animals ; Drosophila ; genetics ; Drosophila Proteins ; genetics ; Genome, Insect ; Hedgehog Proteins ; genetics ; Humans ; Models, Animal ; Obesity ; genetics ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics

Animals ; Cell Division ; Drosophila melanogaster ; cytology ; enzymology ; Female ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; enzymology ; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases ; metabolism

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays an important role during embryonic development and pattern formation. Disruption of Hh pathway results in various developmental disorders and increasing cancer incidence. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the pathway members, focusing on how mammalian Hh regulates the Gli family of transcription factors through its downstream members, the so-called "canonical signaling pathway". Hh signaling pathway is highly conserved among species, and primary cilia plays an important role as a "signaling center" during vertebrate signal transduction. Further, in the past few years, numerous studies have shown that Hh signal can also be transduced through Gli-independent ways collectively referred to as "non-canonical signaling pathways", which can be subdivided into two modules: (i) those not requiring Smo and (ii) those downstream of Smo that do not require Gli transcription factors. Thus, we review the rapid progress on canonical and non-canonical Hh pathways.
Animals ; Cilia ; physiology ; Hedgehog Proteins ; physiology ; Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled ; physiology ; Signal Transduction ; Transcription Factors ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the differences in clinicopathological characteristics and severity between American and Chinese patients with colorectal Crohn disease(CD).

METHODSBetween March 1985 and September 2004, 68 patients with colorectal CD in Cleveland Clinic Florida (America) and 85 patients with colorectal CD in the 301 Hospital(China) were enrolled in the study. Data of two groups,including demographics, clinical characteristics, extraintestinal manifestations, presenting symptoms, location and pathological characteristics,were compared.

RESULTS60.3% of American patients and 36.5% of Chinese patients were female(P=0.003). 11.8% of American patients and 1.2% of Chinese patients had a family history of CD(P=0.016). American patients had a significantly higher rate of extraintestinal disease (39.7% vs 20.0%), abscess(19.0% vs 0), and anorectal fistulas(51.5% vs 0). American patients had significantly more extensive disease than Chinese patients(pancolitis: 44.1% vs 4.7%, P<0.01). American patients had a significantly higher rate of disease involving the ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, anorectal area compared with Chinese patients(all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSAmerican patients with colorectal Crohn disease seem to have a female predominance, a higher rate of CD family history, to involve the distal intestinal tract more often, and have more severe clinical manifestation and pathological process, as compared with Chinese patients.

Adolescent ; Adult ; China ; Crohn Disease ; ethnology ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; United States ; Young Adult

With Chinese medicine (CM) gaining popularity in recent years, researchers and clinicians have put in much interest and effort into the makings and effects of it, especially after the recent announcement of World Health Orgnitation's incorporation of CM into mainstream medical compendium. Individual herb has complex properties, coming from its pharmacological properties and the Chinese medical principles of organ-directed, taste and dynamic orientational behaviours. The use of individual herb in CM is rare, where various herbs/ingredients are mostly found in a prescribed formula. To fully reveal the effects of CM is a great challenge. The complexity of various herbs in combined effect, the absorption and utility rate by the body, uniqueness of individual physique, sub-types of pathological behaviors and time-line progression of the healing process add on to the complication of understanding the full effect of CM. Various theories such as pathophysiology guidance, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic compatibility method, and Global Systems Biology for Integrative Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics, which interactively provide a wider scope, more details, with the consideration of development timeline, may shed more light to revealing the full picture of the effects of compatibility prescription.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Prescriptions ; Systems Biology

Objective To assess the pain of patients with disorders of consciousness(DOC) and e-valuate the reliability and validity of Chinese version of Nociception Coma Scale- revised ( NCS-R). Meth-ods Sixty-two patients with disorders of consciousness were assessed by NCS-R and the internal reliability, inter-rater reliability,test-retest reliability and concurrent validity was analyzed. Results Cronbach's alpha (α) of internal reliability was 0. 611, test-retest reliability for the NCS-R total scores by spearman was 0. 884. For the subscales,the reliability for the motor,verbal and facial subscale scores by Cronbach's kappa were 0. 856,0. 870 and 0. 856 respectively. Inter-rater reliability for the NCS-R total scores by spearman was 0. 662. For the subscales,the reliability for the motor,verbal and facial subscale scores by Cronbach's kappa were 0. 962,0. 867 and 0. 671 respectively. The spearman coefficient of concurrent validity was 0. 560 (all P<0. 01). Conclusion The NCS-R is a good valid scale and available for Chinese clinician and researchers to assess the pain of DOC patients.

Objective To investigate the effects of enamel matrix proteins (EMP) on odontogenic differentiation of human dental pulp cells (HDPC) in vitro.Methods HDPC were isolated by explant culture methods and expanded to passage 4 for experiments.The cells were seeded into 6-well plates (2 × 105 cells/well) and divided into 5 groups,treated with 1,10 or 100 mg/L EMP,10-8 mol/L dexamethasone and 100 mg/L ascorbic acid (Dex-AA) or basal media respectively.Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was measureded after up to 10 days in culture.The mRNA expression of dentin matrix protein-1 (DMP-1)and dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) were determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.Calcified nodule formation was evaluated by alizarin red staining and spectroscopic method.Results The ALP activity levels of all 5 groups were increased in a time-dependent manner.There was no significant difference among each group after 1 day.After 5 days,the ALP activity was increased significantly especially for the 10 mg/L EMP,100 mg/L EMP and Dex-AA groups,values were 7.573 ± 0.267,6.119 ± 0.502 and 5.846 ± 0.096,respectively (P ＜ 0.05).After 10 days,the increase of ALP activity in the 10 mg/L EMP(21.035 ± 0.149) and Dex-AA groups(13.223 ± 0.797) was remarkable,compared with the negative control group (5.825 ± 0.404) (P ＜ 0.01).Statistical differences were detected for DMP-1 and DSPP mRNA expressions in 10mg/L EMP group(14.791 ± 0.164,12.238 ± 0.421),compared with negative control group (4.959 ± 0.184,2.645 ± 0.570) (P ＜ 0.01).Phase contrast microscopy revealed orange-red stained nodules in 1 mg/L and 10 mg/L EMP groups.Such staining was not that much obvoius in the negative control group.After quantifying the staining,it can be clearly seen that 10 mg/L EMP enhanced calcium deposition [(191.8 ± 2.0) μmol/L] significantly,compared to the negative control[(81.1 ± 8.1) μmol/L] (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions This study showed that optimized concentration of EMP can stimulate odontoblastic differentiation of HDPC,which suggests that EMP may be useful for directing HDPC down the odontoblastic lineage in dentine tissue engineering.

Betacoronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; Diagnostic Imaging ; methods ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; Radiology Department, Hospital ; organization & administration